Abstract: Objective  To explore the traditional Chinese medical (TCM) syndrome discipline of panic disorder. Methods  A standardized TCM syndrome inventory was used to collect symptoms based on the four diagnostic methods from 193 patients who met the criteria for panic disorder. Frequency analysis, Cluster analysis, and Bayesian network were performed, and relevant literatures and expert opinions were incorporated to determine the distribution of syndrome types. Results  The syndrome types of 193 patients with panic disorder involve the syndrome of deficiency of both heart and spleen (33.68%), syndrome of disharmony between heart and kidney (26.94%), syndrome of qi deficiency of heart and gallbladder (16.06%), syndrome of spleen-kidney deficiency (12.95%), syndrome of dampness-heat of spleen and stomach (10.36%). Conclusions  In addition to the syndrome of dampness-heat of spleen and stomach, syndrome types of deficiency seem to be more prominent in panic disorder, comprising syndrome of disharmony between heart and kidney, syndrome of deficiency of both heart and spleen, syndrome of spleen-kidney deficiency, syndrome of qi deficiency of heart and gallbladder. Also, most of the syndrome types are heart-related, involving syndrome of disharmony between heart and kidney, syndrome of deficiency of both heart and spleen, syndrome of qi deficiency of heart and gallbladder.

Key words: panic disorder, TCM syndrome discipline, Cluster analysis, Bayesian network